Mandated Benefits

A coalition of labor and business groups today endorsed the idea of low-cost basic health insurance that would be exempt from the state's controversial mandated benefits.This position is a departure for the Maryland-D.C. AFL-CIO, the state's largest labor federation, which had fought for mandated benefits in the past.By state law, certain benefits are required in health insurance policies. These benefits include transplants, in vitro fertilization, mental-health care and substance-abuse treatment.

A proposal by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland to offer low-cost health insurance to some of the 570,000 Marylanders who do not have coverage has come under fire from a consumer group.Maryland Citizen Action Coalition said the plan would undermine the state's system of required health-insurance benefits and be too expensive for many uninsured people.But Blue Cross said the plan will not present any competition to existing plans that fall under state requirements and that it is targeted to only a segment of the uninsured population.